Spite
Marriage, the last silent film by comedian Buster Keaton, opened
in Detroit at the Fisher theater on Friday, April 26, 1929. It earlier
opened in New York City on March 24, 1929. Spite
Marriage also featured Dorothy Sebastian and was the second movie
that Keaton made for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio.

When
Spite
Marriage was released, the tide had almost
completely turned in favor of talking pictures, which had debuted in late
1927 with The
Jazz Singer. In both Detroit and New York, Spite
Marriage was presented with synchronized
sound and intertitles for dialogue.

"There
were waves of laughter from top to bottom of the house," wrote Mordaunt
Hall in a review of Spite
Marriage in the New York Times on
March 25, 1929. "Mr. Keaton's Mohican-like visage stands him in good
stead, for he can do crack-brained things and yet make people happy."
In New York, Spite
Marriage opened earlier than originally
planned at the Capitol theater, because of the poor sound quality in the
talking picture The
Great Power, which was screened just six times before being replaced
by Spite
Marriage.

"Buster
Keaton in an awfully dressy affair, because Buster wears evening clothes
and swanky yachting togs most of the time, called 'Spite Marriage' is
at the Fisher," wrote Ella H. McCormick in the April 27, 1929 Detroit
Free Press. "And, although it is a silent picture in these days
of the omnipresent 'talkie,' it has humorous and smart captions that reveal
a comedy as well as an audience sense."

Also
playing in Detroit on April 26, 1929 was M-G-M's first sound movie, The
Broadway Melody (Anita Page, Bessie Love), in its fifth week at
the Adams.

Other
movies in Detroit on April 26, 1929 were Show
Boat (Laura La Plante, Alma Rubens) at the State; His
Captive Woman (Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill) at the Madison;
Noah's
Ark (Dolores Costello, George O'Brien) at the Shubert Detroit
Opera House; Alibi
(Chester Morris, Eleanor Griffith) at the United Artists; Sonny
Boy (Davey Lee, Betty Bronson) at the Michigan; Clara Bow's first
talking picture, The
Wild Party, at the Capitol; and Thru
Different Eyes (Mary Duncan, Warner Baxter) at the Fox.

Ann
Arbor audiences were treated to the opening of Spite
Marriage at the Michigan theater on Sunday,
May 5, 1929, following a run of Fancy
Baggage (Audrey Ferris, Myrna Loy). Spite
Marriage was presented with live accompaniment
at the Michigan, which would not present its first sound picture until
one month later on June 16, 1929 (Weary
River, with Richard Barthelmess).